VOL. 3 : DANIEL SWANIGAN SNOW

The Eight Pillars of Power

November 18th - December 23th 2023

For the third iteration of Prelude, Swivel is thrilled to announce the presentation of Daniel Swanigan Snow’s Walking Sticks (2023), a series of eight sculptures the artist also coins “The Eight Pillars of Power”.

Daniel Swanigan Snow’s sculptural practice is composed of found objects retaining their original form, combined with other unexpected objects, resulting in a completely new form and function. Twenty years ago, Snow began building what he calls “three dimensional collages”. Growing organically from either a specic found object, or a socio-political concern that he feels has to be addressed visually. Snow’s methods have their roots in the Italian “Arte Povera” movement of the 1960s, so-called “poor art” unaected by commercial concerns and using unconventional, humble materials.

Snow’s Walking Sticks are made up of found objects, stones from the beaches of the Hamptons, sticks from various states and materials from the artist’s lived experiences. They echo spiritual objects, in their ornateness and material choice.

The artist’s deliberate choice to incorporate organic materials, bone and other faunal remains (feathers, shells, turkey feet etc.) in tandem with metal and glass, provides these objects with an almost otherworldly connotation and harnesses the power of having something that was once alive, of something that once was.

Realm of Second Thoughts, is composed of a cow jaw, a dreamcatcher hooked to the wooden stick by what resembles a claw, and a taxidermied frog, while Kongo, incorporates bells, adding the element of sound to the visual work.

The title, Walking Sticks, provides these eight sculptures with a whimsical, light air, reinforcing the artist’s mentality around a so-called “poor art” while in counterpart, the “scepter”, used throughout various cultures for millennia as a status symbol, has been associated with power and wealth but also spirituality.

Scepters are mentioned in ancient cultures from Mesopotamia to Ancient Egypt and Greece. The use of walking sticks historically evolved from a functional purpose to a status symbol over time. Humans used these elongated rods, made of wood, metal, and ivory at times and could be intricately ornate with beading, gold, bone, shells and various other materials associated with wealth in their respective culture.

Snow’s creations hold within them something contemporary but ancient, a blending of our time while crossing over into the past, into boundary-less territory.

They contain a mystic quality where life is seemingly breathed into them through history they’ve bore witness to, the miles they’ve traveled, and the will into existence set into motion by the intention of the artist.

"Prelude" is an innovative series of capsule projects hosted at our agship location at 396 Johnson Avenue.

This initiative is designed to provide a first encounter with the practice of an artist on the gallery’s horizon. The core of this concept revolves around an intimate presentation to introduce a deeper dive in a future exhibition: in our viewing room, a chosen artist will take the stage alongside our duo of full-scale exhibitions. Serving as a point of introduction, this compact yet impactful display will allow viewers to create rst impressions of the gallery’s new talents, establishing the thematic essence of our upcoming collaboration.

Swivel invites you to join us in celebrating Daniel Swanigan Snow's debut at the gallery.
Prelude III will launch on November 18th, coinciding with the unveiling of Utē Petit’s Lusa Humma and Alejandro García Contreras’ first US solo exhibition.

Daniel Swanigan Snow was born in Pittsburgh, PA in 1951. He moved to New York City in the 1970’s to pursue acting where he performs on both stage and lm. At the age of 54 he began making art, transforming found objects much like he transforms himself as an actor, rst feverishly lling his garage, then his living space, then his basement and now spilling out into his yard in Dyker Heights, Brooklyn.

Despite coming to art late, or perhaps because of it, Snow’s work is created with all the jouissance of a youthful insouciance. His sculptural assemblage eortlessly evokes the psychologically distraught world of later Isa Genzken and other art world insiders like Kienholz and Rauschenberg; while, at the same time, through consistent exposure within the genre of outsider or art brut, attention has been drawn to anities with the work of Lonnie Holly and Hawkins Bolden.

Daniel Swanigan Snow was first exposed to the New York art scene beginning in 2013 through the Cathouse FUNeral / Proper gallery project where his work was featured in two solo exhibitions, as well as several notable group exhibitions, many of which garnered critical attention. Additionally, through the Cathouse project, Snow exhibited in three consecutive solo- booths at the Outsider Art Fair in NYC from 2016-2018, culminating with inclusion in the fair’s 25th anniversary exhibition, curated by outsider luminary, Edward M. Gomez. In 2020 over thirty works by Snow were installed in a large solo showing at Brooklyn's bespoke 1GAP Gallery. Snow's work has been featured or reviewed in Hyperallergic, Artnet, Brutforce, Hungton Post, and Brooklyn Rail.